Stoke City vs Arsenal

Nothing new today. Typical game between us and Stoke: a lot of physical play; shit load of crosses and throw ins from them; goal from a cross for them; both teams battling for possession all game long with us having the majority of it. I feel that the day we can come in here and beat Stoke comfortably, will be the day where i know our team is really good.

The Britannia stadium is always been a tough place to come and play, not only for us but for any of the top teams. Today was no different. We actually started the game pretty well with Benayoun and Van persie both missing great chances. Our passing looked sharp but next thing you know, a cross from the left and Crouch scores...I felt Szczesny could have done a bit better. He didn't even dive, almost as if he wasn't expecting the ball to go in. Our response to Stoke's goal was good and the goal we scored was brilliantly worked. Good couple of passes on the left, great cross from Rosicky and an easy tap in for RVP. It was important for us to score quickly after them because otherwise they would have defended deep and try to catch us on the counter. 

The rest of the game was back and forward. We had way more possession than them overall but they had spells where they put us under pressure as well. Gervinho missed a great chance in the 21st min when Sagna gave a great cross and all Gervinho had to do was tap it in with his head but he got too scared of colliding with the keeper and pussed out! He had another shitty game today and even though he showed good pace on a few occasions and was active in the first half, his finishing was god awful: hit the ball in the stands at least 3 times when he was trying to shoot. Simply put: he was not good enough. Ramsey was in the same boat. Another poor performance by him. He has abilities but right now he is playing shit. Last week in the second half of the Chelsea game, he showed some signs of starting to play better but today he was back to playing poorly. He continues to make dumb decisions like playing back hills and so on at the wrong moments.

Benayoun was decent, very active in the beginning; had a great chance in the 6th min and i feel he should have done better and scored. He continued to look for the ball and tried to create chances in the first half. In the second, he faded away and the one thing that bothers me, is that sometimes he doesn't come back and help the rest of the team to press on the ball. He takes breaks from time to time and just watches everyone else run. Benayoun also blatantly dove for a penalty. I saw Arsene make a big deal about the penalty claim but when i saw the replay, that was a clear dive and they should not have even complained about it.  

Rosikcy was out best midfielder today. Gave a great pass to RVP for the goal and was very active the whole game. He almost gave him another great ball in the first half but slipped and ended up hitting it too close to Begovic. Song was solid, had to do more defensive work today so he didn't go forward as much. Should have shot at the last minute of the game instead of trying to pass the ball but he had a decent game. Robin was good as well. Scored a nice goal and gave some great passes in the first half. In the second he disappeared a bit but so did the rest of the team. Sagna, Koscielny and Vermaelen all had a good game. Had to fight all game long with the aerial presence of Crouch and a big amount of balls being crossed constantly into our box. We did better than normally in dealing with those, even though right at the end of the game we could have gotten punished. Delap had everyone scrambling in our penalty area after a long throw in the 91st minute. And then Sagna allowed Walters ( i think) to pass him easily on the left, and he should have done better and scored.

Gibbs was the defender that i was most disappointed with today. He likes helping the team to press on the ball and sometimes he forgets he has responsibilities in the back. In the 41st minute Benayoun was pressing someone from Stoke in the midfield; Gibbs rushed to help and after a couple of quick passes Stoke has two players vs two in front of our penalty area because Gibbs had no one to cover behind him. He also gave a really bad back pass in the 52nd minute and thank god Szczesny was alert! I like Gibbs and his pace and athleticism but he has to be a bit smarter and use his skills better.

So at the end a draw was probably a fair result. We definitely didn't create enough chances especially in the second half to feel that we should have won the game. And Stoke had some chances of their own as well. The good news is that Newcastle got hammered at Wigan and this point we won today can be very useful. Our faith is in our hands now! If we can win our next two games, 3rd place is ours!! C'mon You Gunners!!!        

Arsenal vs Chelsea

Mixed feelings about the result today. Considering the way we played i will take a draw. I think we got lucky not to get scored on after we got caught on the counter attack numerous times. At the same time we had the better chances to score a goal and we hit the post twice. Depending on how other scores go, this might turn out to be a valuable point. But we also can get punished for another under performance at home.

The first half we got outplayed, there is no question about that. Chelsea were very compact and were doing a great job of denying us space in the middle of the field and on the wings. We missed A LOT of passes and most of them led to dangerous counters and a few penalty appeals from Chelsea. In all honesty i don't think there were penalties but i have seen them given as well (Man U normally gets those calls). So kudos for the ref today who didn't make a dumb ass decision and ruin the game. Chelsea were lacking the final pass to finish those counters, otherwise we allowed them plenty of space to work with. And even though we sucked in the first half we had the better chances: in the 13th minuteTheo put a great cross in from a free kick and i couldn't believe RVP didn't score. Same thing happened a bit later when Koscielny hid the bar after another good cross.  

Second half we played better. We put more passes together in a row and had more possession than we did in the first. Ramsey, who was absolutely awful in the first half and was one of the players who gave away the ball consistently, all of a sudden woke up and started making some great passes. First, he gave a great ball to RVP who miss-hit it badly. And then his game started flowing better, gave a few more good long passes to Gervinho and Santos. I was ready to bash Ramsey for his performance in the first half which was shit, but he finally played a good half of football in the second one. Van Persie was poor today. Unlike the match with Wigan, today he had more than a couple of chances to score. On a few of them, he miss-hit tough balls, but they were still chances he was scoring a few months ago. And then he had a great chance in the 85th min when he should have shot the ball with his right foot after he put the defender on his ass, instead of trying to go back to his left. So for his standards that was disappointing performance. Until he got injured, Theo was doing decent; gave a great ball for the first chance of RVP; covered a lot of ground defensively as well but since Chelsea had closed the wide areas well, he couldn't do much. Oxlade did decent too, nothing great but also showed discipline at coming back and covering on defense. Rosicky wasn't much of a factor, maybe the illness he had this week took it's toll on him.

Song also missed some passes today but overall he had a good game and gave some great balls. Gervinho was NOT good AGAIN. After he came on for Theo, i think he lost the ball at least 3 times in succession. He has to be much better than that. Except for one run on the left when he gave a decent cross he didn't do almost anything at all. Diaby was not bad, made some good runs through the middle but his final pass was lacking. Considering he has played once in like 5 months, we will give him a pass. Santos did decent but wasn't able to be a difference maker either. In all honesty, even though we played better in the second half, Chelsea had more than a couple of great chances as well. Koscielny did really well in the 87th minute to take the ball away from Sturridge's foot when he was about to shoot from the small penalty area. Sturridge also missed some other good chances, mainly because he was too greedy to shoot himself instead of trying to link up with his teammates. Torres was a constant threat as well and we did well not too give him too many chances. 

Except for the fact that we were too open when Chelsea countered, the defense was solid today. Both Vermaelen and Koscielny had good games, Gibbs was good for the most part. Sagna struggled a bit in the first half when they broke away a few times on his side, but he did better in the second half. Anyway, draw was probably the fair result. The problem with that is, that we can't make any more mistakes until the end of the season. The away games at Stoke and West Brom should definitely be a concern for us, and since Newcastle won today, if they win their game in hand, they will be tied with us at the 3rd place. And so would Tottenham. So, hopefully some results go our way and we clinch that precious 3rd spot before the last game of the season. C'mon you Gunners!

Arsenal vs Wigan

Where do i start on this one? How about that we have taken big steps in improving as a team over the course of the season, but we are still capable of producing fucking awful performances like today. If there is one thing we can not afford, not just this season, but overall going forward into the next one, is games like today's.

I also really, really, wish that somehow Johan Djourou can be sent back to Switzerland and never return. Ever. It's not like the absolutely comical goals that we conceded today were specifically his fault, but more the fact that every time he is on the field our defense is shit. He is clumsy and unoriented and if Moses had not rushed his shot in the second half it would have been 3 goals for Wigan after Djourou completely misread the situation. The way we conceded the first goal was an absolute joke. How can you send 9 players into the penalty area for a corner kick and no one can realize that we need at least 3 players to stay back? Just in case there is a counter...The second was not much better even though there was some luck involved. I don't care if you play against Barca, going 2-0 down in the first 10 minutes because of your own mistakes/stupidity is unacceptable.

I will give credit to Wigan because they kept the ball and passed it around under pressure like very few sides can. Especially in the second half. Normally when teams are protecting their lead, they would do anything to clear the ball out of their half of the field but Wigan did a great job of passing it around and keeping possession. Thus forcing us to work really hard to get the ball back.

They also did a great job of time wasting which was absolute horse shit. They started time wasting in the 20th minute!!! Fucking Al Habsi should have seen yellow in the first half and that would have hopefully prevented some of his antics. Every goal kick/throw in took 5 minutes to be taken.

Once we pulled one goal back i really thought we had a shot at at least a draw. But in reality we created better chances and more pressure on Wigan in the first half than in the second. For some fucking reason almost everyone today tried to be like the real Ronaldo (the brazilian one) and walk the ball into the goal. There was very little one touch football played. Ramsey who was absolutely horrible today (and i really like the guy) took 10 min every time he touched the ball. He would turn left, right, left, right, left, right and then pass it 5 feet away from him. Not just that, he made so many mistakes and bad passes today, even tried back heels and shit like that when we are losing and are having trouble creating chances. I like the guy, i think he has a lot of potential but his last 6,7 games have been awful. And i don't see a sense of urgency from him to improve and get out of his slump.

Rosicky was also taking forever on the ball but at least he was more effective. Gave a great ball to Vermaelen for our goal and also a great pass to Theo which was Walcott's only real chance of the game. 1 fucking chance! As i have said a 1,000 times already, Theo gets lost on the right wing and has no clue what to do, especially against teams who are defending for their lifes. I don't think it was coincidence that both the penalty and the goal he scored against Wolves were from chances through the middle. Against teams defending so deep he should be playing as a striker and you can pull RVP a bit behind him. Walcott did change positions a bit in the second half but to no avail. He was poor all day. Benayoun started well and had a decent first half, until he got replaced Gervinho who did absolutely NOTHING. Tried to run with the ball every time he touched it and lost possession pretty much every time. Same with Oxlade, same with whoever had the ball from our players. It seemed we were determined to slalom into their goal instead of trying to keep things simple and pass quick and decisive. Robin was trying hard but he also never had any real chances.

Sagna was having a very tough time with Moses, and so was "the clown", i mean Djourou. Vermaelen was the only one having a clue what's going on and he also scored a great goal. Santos did not look as slow as usual but also tried to run through the entire Wigan defense when attacking. The bottom line is that we didn't play as a team today. There were patches where we pressed very organized and got the ball back quickly, especially in the first half. But towards the end of the game we ran out of steam and patience chasing those guys and that's why i give credit to Wigan for keeping possession of the ball so well. Going forward we were more like "every man for himself" than an organized attacking unit. 

After a great performance against City, we took a dump today right in the middle of the Emirates. Now the Chelsea game becomes even more important and with games against Stoke and West Brom away we made our life so much harder.I guess the only good news is the Koscielny should be available against Chelsea.   

Arsenal vs Manchester City

I am not going to lie, i really, really enjoyed yesterday's win for many reasons. First, i thought it was one of our best performances of the season. Second, watching us slashing Nasri and Clichy's dreams of winning trophies this season was also very enjoyable. I understand that every Arsenal fan has a different opinion on the transfers of those two players but i will always see them as traitors, especially Nasri. And third, i think we dominated the game and deserved to win, something that has not always happened for us when we have dominated games in the past.

The first half it was all us. City missed a decent chance from a corner kick in the 25th minute but other than that, we created most of the good chances. I still can't believe how unlucky were both Vermaelen and Van Persie when RVP had his header going into the net and Verma just couldn't get out of the way. The idiot Balotelli should have seen red for the challenge he made on Song in the first half and what baffles me is that this guy never learns. He keeps doing the same dumb shit over and over. And i don't feel sorry for Mancini at all because he should know that Balotelli is someone who you can't rely on. I understand that he has tremendous amounts of talent as a football player but as a person he is selfish and unreliable. I would choose a guy with less talent but solid character any day, over a supremely talented player with no sense of team play.

The second half, City had a 10 minute spell where they played better than us and missed a few chances but other than that we dominated the game again and we should have scored at least 2,3 goals. Van Persie had a great chance to score when he hit the post; then Theo hit the post and Vermaelen and Benayoun should have put the rebound in. At the end we got what we deserved with a great strike from Arteta. As soon as i saw the space he had, i knew he would strike it pretty well. Ramsey could have made it two at the end but his finish was lacking confidence. Regardless, it was a great win for us and it was good performance all around from the team.

Defensively it was a very good game for us. We pressed on the ball well throughout the whole game and that was very pleasing to see. After the horrible game Vermaelen had against QPR, against City he was great. Koscielny also did well, except for a bad challenge against Barry for which he deserved maybe even more than a yellow. He will probably miss a game or two because that was his 10th yellow for the season, so we will have to watch the dreadful Djourou in defense. Santos came in for a bit in the second half and his lack of pace is still very worrying for me.

Rosicky and Benayoun had a solid game. They were both very active and all over the pitch. Benayoun had a great chance to score too, he will be kicking himself for missing that one. Arteta was great and not only because he scored. Song also had a strong game and his pass to Van Persie when Robin hit the post was typical class from Song. Walcott was not great yesterday, this is the second game in a row where he is not really a threat and he has been up and down like this all season. I just wish he can be more consistent and creative on the wing. Van Persie was solid and should have scored at least twice but sometimes luck gets in the way.

So to sum it up: Great win for us yesterday!!! Not only it put us 2 pts in front Tottenham but after those jokers lost today, we have a good chance to make it 5pts if we beat Wolves on Wednesday. Getting 3rd place this year will be huge for us. So hopefully we will continue to play well and take care of business on Wednesday. C'mon you Gunners!!!